


Shadows of the Past

by Ultra



Series: Moments in Time [28]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Parker Being Parker (Leverage), Past, Protective Eliot Spencer, Running Away, Unexpected Visitors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-10
Updated: 2012-05-10
Packaged: 2020-03-02 19:32:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18817549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Someone unexpected shows up from Parker's past during a con and throws her for a loop.





	Shadows of the Past

**Author's Note:**

> originally written for tinylegacies on Livejournal, based on her prompt.

Parker had to concentrate when she was on the grift, had to concentrate harder than anyone else not be thrown off her game and forget herself. She was so focused on walking in her heels, maintaining her accent, getting the target where he needed to be, she couldn’t let anything else cloud her mind. It was the only time she wasn’t 110% aware of everything around her, and that was how he managed to appear as if from nowhere and scare the life out of her.

She recognised him instantly, though she hadn’t seen him since that fateful day, half her life ago or more. Right now she could hear those same sirens and feel the panic rise in her chest as she stared at him and he stared right back. 

“Parker?”

When he said her name it was as if she really had travelled back in time and bile rose in her throat as she answered him.

“Kelly.” She nodded once, feeling sick.

Her breathing was off and it took her a moment to notice. She had this overwhelming need to hit this guy, run away and cry, but did none of the above as she just stood and stared. People were looking at her, she could feel it now, and it only made matters worse.

“Kelly?” said Hardison in her ear. “The carjacking dude who left you to get busted?” he checked, already sure he was right.

“I got this,” Eliot growled in both their ears then, and before Parker had a chance to say a word, he seemed to be there at her side.

“Who’s this?” Kelly chuckled at the sight of him. “Your guard dog?” he sneered, for all of a second before he was unconscious on the ground.

It only took one punch to lay a guy out if you knew how, and Eliot sure knew how. He turned around, ignoring the gasps from people surrounding them, focusing on checking Parker was okay. She was already off and running, as he might have known she would be, fancy shoes abandoned and hair flying free as he cleared the doors.

“Nate, Sophie, get the job done,” said Eliot through his earbud. “I’ll take care of Parker,” he promised before pulling out the comms device and bolting after her.

She moved like a cheetah, sleek and quick as the fastest cat on the planet, but Eliot knew her well enough by now to figure out her game plan. She would run towards comfort, towards familiar territory. Right now he could narrow that down to two places – Nate’s apartment above McRory's or her own warehouse downtown. The others would guess the former, so Eliot second guessed the latter, and was proved right when he arrived at the warehouse and found the door left slightly open. She even knew he would follow her and didn’t seem to mind. That meant a lot to the hitter.

“Parker, darlin’?” he called as he stepped inside, the whole place dark except for the bed on which she sat way in back.

“I’m sorry,” she replied without looking around.

She was sat with her back to the door, what appeared to be her beloved Bunny in her arms. Even without ever seeing her face, Eliot knew she was crying. It made the hitters blood boil in his veins to know that scum Kelly could upset her like this, that anyone would dare to hurt his Parker that way. Calling her ‘his’ was dumb and he knew it, she didn’t belong to him and never would, but he loved her enough, he just couldn’t help it.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he told her as he walked over to the bed and hovered at the end of it, feeling dumb for not knowing whether to sit or stand or whatever.

“I screwed up the job,” she lamented, sniffing and hiccupping still, “and I… I should’ve been tougher than that!” she complained, angry at herself more than anything it seemed.

“You are tougher,” he assured her, not even thinking as he came over to her then and reached a hand to her shoulder. “Parker, you are so much stronger than you realise, way tougher than that dumbass Kelly,” he promised her.

“Why does it still hurt that he left me?” she asked then, all red-rimmed eyes and desperation. “I thought I was okay about it, but then I saw him and it hurt again. Why?”

“Because… you’re human, darlin’, despite what we used to think,” he teased her with a smirk. “Seriously, Parker, you’re allowed to feel bad about what that jackass did to you, but y’know, it’s jerks like him that actually make you stronger”.

Parker thought on that a while and it didn’t take long for her to realise Eliot was right. If not for Kelly, she wouldn’t know how to boost cars, and that would be bad, and even though he was the reason she first went to juvy, well, that had even turned out to be a good thing because she learnt a lot there. Eliot was right, she was tougher because of the experience.

“I’m still glad you punched him,” she said anyway. “Thank you for that.” She smiled a watery smile as she jumped up then and hugged Eliot tight.

He let his arms wrap around her, holding her close as she cried all over again on his shoulder. He was glad to make her feel better, but in the end, there was no question in his mind that Kelly was an asshole for what he did to her. She was just a kid, and though he wasn’t much older, he knew what he was doing. You never leave your partner behind that way, never. Of course, Eliot couldn’t take back what someone else had done to Parker, but he could damn well make sure it never happened again. He needed for her to know that and with Parker it paid to spell things out sometimes.

“Hey,” he said when her sniffling got down to a dull roar. “Now you listen to me, and you listen good,” he told her, taking her face in his hands and making her look at him. “Don’t you ever think that can happen to you again. Nobody on this team would ever leave you behind that way, okay?” he told her. “And that goes double for me,” he swore. “I will always have your back, babe, always.”

“I know.” she told him honestly. “You’re Eliot.” She shrugged as if it were explanation enough.

She could have no idea how much that meant to him, even though he gave her that rarely seen genuine smile that lit up his bright blue eyes like stars.

“C’mon,” he said, putting one arm over her shoulders. “Let’s go see if anyone got killed trying to finish that job without us.”

Her laughter was music to his ears then, and always would be.


End file.
